Commodities & Fairtrade News South Africa

Better crop forecast may ease food inflation worry

South Africa has upgraded its forecast for the 2016 maize crop, an outcome which would help ease high food inflation. In its seventh production forecast for the year, the crop estimates committee said on Wednesday that farmers would harvest a total of 7.262-million tons of maize, up 1.41% from last month's estimate of 7.160-million tons.
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Unsplash via pixabay

Food inflation rose to an annual pace of 11% in June from 10.8% in May, according to the latest data from Statistics SA, and has been one of the key contributors to the overall headline inflation.

Severe drought in the main maize and oilseed production areas of North West and the Free State triggered a rally in prices earlier in 2016 as concern over supply matched the duration of the drought.

The actively traded white maize futures for December delivery peaked at R5,226 a ton before easing to current levels of R4,279 a ton. Yellow maize for December delivery peaked at R3,954 a ton before easing to R3,365 a ton.

The country is expected to consume 10.4-million tons in the current marketing period, which ends in April. Including exports, the figure will rise to 11.22-million tons. Apart from maize meal from white maize, yellow maize, a basic input for the production of red meat, chicken, eggs, and milk.

Among other summer crop estimates, sunflower is now expected to be 742,750 tons from 742,750. Soybean is expected to rise to 750,250 tons from 728,650.

Source: BDpro

Source: I-Net Bridge

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